"Some of the senior officers of this unit were summoned by the CID under the influence of a Colombo based politician and found fault about interrogating some leading underworld figures"

@ DM / Saturday, 23 April 2011

Top officers, including the Superintendent of Police, Assistant Superintendent of Police and OIC of the Intelligence Unit of the Special Task Force have reportedly been transferred with effect from Monday on the direction of the IGP, informed sources said.

The unit was tasked to crackdown the underworld gangsters on the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa sometime back. During that period the unit was able to crackdown the activities of some prominent underworld figures and many of them had to flee the country.

Several months ago, the STF was taken under the direct purview of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in order to intensify the actions against the underworld. But after the Buttala incident, where a clash erupted between the Army and the STF personnel, the IGP had again taken over the STF.Prominent underworld leaders such as Fargi, Olcotte and Ayub Khan were killed during the period when the STF intelligence unit was carrying out its crackdown, police reports stated.

However in the recent past the powers of this unit had been curtailed due to pressure from some politicians, sources said.

It is also learnt that some of the senior officers of this unit were summoned by the CID under the influence of a Colombo based politician and found fault about interrogating some leading underworld figures.

However, source said there was no reason given for the transfer of these officers.

At the same time the Police chief made several more transfers within the STF with immediate effect.